Knife polishing or sharpening machine.



PATENTED JUNE 16, 1908.

H. B. KEIPER. KNIFE POLISHING OR SHARPENING MACHINE.

APPLIGATION FILED OUT. 25, 1907.

Wit" asses rue NORRIS PETERS co.. wAsnmamu, D. c.

PATENTED JUNE 16, 1908.

H. B. KBI PER. KNIFE PDLISHING 0R SHARPBNING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED OUT. 25, 1907.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

Enuenl'oz QM b1 eases PATENT ED JUNE 16, 1908,

H. B. KEIPEE.v KNIFE POLISHING OR SHARPBNING MACHINE.

APPLICATION IILEDOOT. 25, 1907.

3 T E E H J S T B E H ND 4 Egg E rue :vurems PETERS co, wasnmcmx zx'c.

No. 890,658. PATENTED JUNE 16, 1908. H. B. KEIPBR. KNIFE POLISHING 0B. SHARPENING MACHINE.

APPLIOATION FILED OUT. 25, 1907.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

2/91 5" emu HENRY B. KEIPER, OF LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA.

KNIFE POLISHING OR SHARPENING- MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

raf enta'rane 1c, 1908.

Application filed October 25, 1907. Serial No. 399,219.

ToaZZ whom it may concern:

- Be it known that I, HENRY B. I EIPER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Lancaster, in the county of Lancaster and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Knife Polishing or Sharpening Machines; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to machines for polishing and sharpening knives and similar articles, and more particularly to that class of machines in which revoluble polishing or grinding disks or wheels are employed facing each other, betweenwhich the article to be operated upon is held by the operator while the disks or wheels are rotated with their polishing or grinding surfaces in yielding contact with the knife-blade or other article being polished or sharpened.

The objects of the invention are to provide an efficient and durable, yet simple and inexpensive machine of the character referred to, that may be easily taken apart, for repairs or for the purpose of renewing any part that may become worn or broken, and to adapt the disks to be set at different angles in relation to each other, so that their marginal portions or edges may touch at either side of the machine, or their confronting surfaces be arranged in parallel planes; also to provide means for protecting the journal-bearings and driving-gears from dust or powdered material that may escape from between the revolving disks, and a simple and efficient device for depositing powdered emery or other cleaning material upon the confronting surfaces of the disks, together with means to prevent such material from escaping and being thrown off and floating around the room.

The invention will first be hereinafter more fully described, with reference to the accompanying drawings, which are to be taken as a part of this specification, and then pointed out in the claims at the end of the description.

In said drawings, Figure 1 represents a side elevation of a machine embodying my invention with means for clamping the machine on a table or the like; Fig. 2 is a plan view of the same illustrating in full and dotted lines different positions in which the disks may be secured, the hood or cover being removed; Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional. elevation through a part of the machine shown in Figs. 1 and 2, a part thereof being broken away; Fig. 4 is a vertical transverse section taken on the line IV-IV of Fig. 3; Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a detachable hood; Fig. 6 is a detail view on a reduced scale of a preferred form of polishing disk, having a metallic backing, and of the end-plate on the shaft to which the disk is secured; Fig. 7 is a sectional elevation similar to Fig. 1, illustrating a modification of the machine-frame; Fig. 8 is a detail perspective view of the gearcasing shown in Fig. 7 in which the shaft of a revoluble disk has its bearings, and illustrating in connection with Fig. 9 the mode of attachment to the frame; Fig. 9 is a detail perspective view illustrating one side or endportion of the machine-frame from which the gear-casing shown in Fig. 8 has been removed; Fig. 10 is a side elevation of the modification shown in Figs. 7 to 9, and Fig. 11 is a plan view thereof indicating in dotted lines different positions in which the disks may be set with their edges touching at either side of the machine.

Referring to the drawings, in which the same reference letters are used to denote corresponding parts in different views, the letters A, A, may denote disks or wheels for polishing or grinding pur oses, in this instance olishing disks fixer upon the ends of shafts B, which are journaled in suitable bearings u on the machine-frame, there being two of such disks arranged at an acute angle to each other, side by side, with their marginal portions touchin for contact with opposite sides of a knife-b ade or other article inserted between them. In the form shown the disk consists of a cylindrical body preferably of felt or other elastic material, having an annular metallic plate or washer a glued or otherwise secured thereto, said washer having an opening a through its center to receive a boss I) projecting from the center of a metallic plate 7) on the end of the shaft B, and also perforated as at a to receive a stud or pin 6 on said plate I). The disks or wheels thus constructed may be readily secured to and removed from the endplates 1), and are prevented from turning or dropping off without special fastening means other than the boss and stud on the endplate of the shaft engaging the openings in the washer, and while a tight fit is desirable, to prevent lateral or sidewise movement, it is evident that displacement of the disk will be prevented by contact with the adjacent disk, even with a loose fit. The described construction also enables the user to readily remove an old and worn disk so as to substitute a new one, and to use interchangeably. with the cleaning and polishing disks emery wheels or the like, similarly constructed for attachment to the end plates of the shafts, for sharpening or grinding purposes. In some cases screws tapped through the end-plate of the shaft and entering the felt body might be employed as a securing means, without a metallic backing, as indicated in Figs. 7 and 8, but in order to secure more satisfactory re sults, and at the same time ada t the disks to be easily removed and rep aced interchangeably with varoius kinds of polishing and grinding wheels, the described or equivalent construction is preferable.

Each of the shafts B is journaled in a gear casing D, which may consist of a substantially semi-cylindrical body having a baseflange d, suitably apertured to receive fastenin bolts or screws E for securing it to the bed-p ate 0 of the frame, and enlargements or bosses d, d at opposite sides or ends thereof through which suitable openings are formed to provide bearings for the shaft B. The boss d is of sufficient length to permit a spring to be interposed between the end of the shaft and a screw-plug G inserted in the outer end of the opening in said boss, for varying the resistance or pressure of the spring, which tends to force the shaft endwise and hold the faces of the disks yieldin ly together. A pin or lug h on the undersi e of the base-fiange d engaging a corresponding recess or opening in the frame-plate c, or vice versa, forms a pivot on which the gear-casing D may swing for the purpose of changing the angle of the disk journaled therein in relation to the adjacent disk, thus enabling the operator to set the disks at dif ferent angles in relation to each other. For the purpose of securing the disks at the desired angle, with their edges or marginal portions touching either at the front or at the rear side of the machine, or with the faces of the disks parallel with each other, a set screw I, tapped through a lug t, depending from the boss (1 of the gear-casing, may engage any one of a series of vertical grooves or depressions i on the end of the frame-plate c, the latter being curved sufficiently to permit such adjustment. The openings in the baseflange of the gear-casing through which the fastening bolts E are inserted register with o enings in the frame-plate c and are slightly e ongated to allow the desired movement of the gear-casing on its pivot without removing said bolts. Motion may be imparted to the polishing or grinding disks by means of a main driving-shaft K, carrying suitable gearwheels 7c, 7c, in mesh with similar gear-wheels k on the shafts B, B, the said shaft K being preferably j ournaled in the frame below and parallel with the shafts B and having a crankhandle 0 at one end for turning it. On the shaft K, between the polishing disks, is placed a rotary agitator and distributing device L, ada ted to gather up ulverized emery or otlier polishing materizil and deposit it upon the surfaces of the polishing disks between which it revolves. It consists preferably of a metallic plate having dovetail recesses or cups in its periphery for collecting the powdered material and scattering it upon the faces of the disks, and is loose upon the shaft so that it may revolve independently thereof by contact with the disks, but it may be made fast on the shaft, if desired.

For the purpose of preventing dust or cleaning material that may be thrown off by the polishing disks from entering and floating around the room, I provide a hood 'or cover M, for the disks, having a longitudinal slot M therein, co-incident with the line of separation of the disks, through which a knife-blade or other article to be polished may be inserted and held between the disks. Said hood as shown, may be substantially semi-cylindrical in form, and has at one end a curved extension m with side flanges form ing a trough or receptacle to catch any cleaning material that may escape from between the polishing devices. Adjacent to said extension the slot through the hood may be widened as at m to permit any waste material escaping from the disk to pass out into the aforesaid receptacle. The hood M may be effectually secured in place over the disks by inclined portions m at the base of the hood catching over the edge of the frame bar 0 and a spring N at the other side of the machine engaging a li or catch n depending from the opposite end of the hood. If desired a similar s ring-catch may be placed on the op osite side of the frame for engagement wit the hood at that side when the hood is reversed, as it may be in order to place the receptacle for cleaning material going to waste on the same side of the machine as that at which the margins of the disks may touch. Below the hood the bedplate or frameiece c of the machine-frame may be forme or provided with a troughlike portion 0 forming a rece tacle for cleaning material and artly incl A, A, and also inc osing the distributing device L.

In the appended claims it will be understood that the expression abrading surfaces is intended to apply to either a cleaning and polishing disk or a disk for sharpening or grinding, and it will also be understood that my invention is not restricted to specific details of construction hereinbefore specifically described but that various 0 anges may be made in the construction osing the disks and arrangement of parts without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention.

In the modification shown in Figs. 7, 8, and 9, of the drawings, the detachable hood M is omitted and the machine-frame is constructed with an upward extension 0 of the trough-like portion or receptacle 0, so as to place the greater portion of the polishing disks within the receptacle, and the polishing disks, denoted by the letters A A, consist merely of a body of felt secured to the end-plates b, b, by screws entering the felt body through apertures in the end-plates; otherwise the construction and o er'ation is essentially the same as illustratec in Figs. 1 to 4 of the drawings.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is 1. The combination, in a machine of the character described, of a frame-plate having curved ends with depressions therein, gear casings mounted on said frame-plate each pivoted at one end and having at its other end a set screw engaging said depressions; said casings having openings therein to provide shaft bearings, and shafts journaled in said openings each having a gear thereon within its casing and a disk or wheel on its inner end, the outer end of the shaft extending part way through an opening in the easing, and means in the latter opening for forcingfthe shaft yieldingly toward the adjacent sha t.

2. In combination with the revoluble disks, a detachable substantially semi-cylindrical hood or cover independent of and removably supported upon the machine-frame and having a longitudinal slot co-incident with the line of separation of the disks, and an extension at one end forming a receptacle forpolishing material which may escape from between the disks.

3. In a machine of the character described a gear-casing having a shaft journaled therein carrying at one end a disk having an abrading surface, its other end abutting a spring fitting within an opening through the casing in which said abutting end of the shaft is journaled, and an adjusting screw entering the latter opening for varying the tension of the spring, said casing having a pivotal connection with the machine-frame, and means for securing the casing in different positions so as to change the angle of the disk in relation to an adjacent disk.

4. In combination with the machineframe having a main driving-shaft journaled therein, a shaft having a gear thereon meshing with a gear on said main driving-shaft and having its bearings in a casing which has a pivotal connection with the machineframe, and an adjusting device whereby said shaft may be fixed in different positions with the disk or wheel thereon at an angle to an adjacent disk or wheel carried by a shaft similarly journaled on the opposite side of the machine.

5. A pair of disks journaled in bearings mounted on the machine-frame, a main driving-shaft journaled below said disks, and a rotary device on said main driving-shaft arranged between the confronting surfaces of the disks and having recesses in its periphery adapted to collect and carry pulverized cleaning material between the disks and distribute it up on their confronting surfaces.

6. In combination, a shaft carrying at one end a disk having an abrading surface, another shaft carrying at one end a similar disk arranged adjacent to the disk on the other shaft, and means for holding the disks in yielding contact with their marginal portions touching, said shafts having their bearings in casings which may be adjusted to vary the angle of either disk in relation to the other disk, and each shaft having a gear thereon housed within its casing and meshing with a gear on a main driving shaft.

7. In combination with a pair of disks having confronting abrading surfaces, an arched hood or cover fitting over the disks and having a slot therein co-incident with the line of separation of the disks through which an ar ticle may be inserted, said cover having a reverse bend at one end forming a receptacle for polishing material that may escape from between the disks.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

HENRY B. KEIPER.

IVitnesses CHAs. E. LONG, LEON K. PAxsoN. 

